Amber Alert issued for two missing Aurora girls

Law enforcement on lookout for children and father, 38-year-old Brian Patterson

Steamboat Springs  Routt County law enforcement authorities have been notified of an Amber Alert issued for two young Aurora girls who are missing.

The alert is effective statewide in Colorado and Wyoming. Brianna Patterson, 4, and her sister, Aliyah, 3, have not been seen since Monday.

The Denver Post reported that a woman found dead this morning in the children's Aurora residence has not been identified "but she probably is the mother," according to Detective Shannon Lucy of the Aurora Police Department.

"The children's father is a person of interest in the death investigation," states a release from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "The children's father may have custody of the children. He has a past of domestic violence."

The center lists the children's father as Brian Patterson, 38, a 6-foot-2 black male with blue eyes and a weight of 235 pounds. Police are looking for a red 1991 Isuzu Rodeo with Colorado license plate 969RTC, and a silver 2002 Dodge Stratus with Colorado license plate 679SUP.